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How to hate doing what you love:
Why you shouldn’t force your art to make you money
“Quarter million a year, and that don’t bounce.”
That’s from “Untouchable,” when Pusha T talks about working as the president of Ye’s record label GOOD Music. His boast was in the salary he’d be earning working in a powerful role at a cutting edge record label, and not relying on the fickle income of music and the struggle of staying relevant in an accelerating news cycle. He could make art without worrying about money. (Pusha has since also written a diss track for Arby’s.)
It’s Push who comes to mind when I read Fadeke Adegbuyi’s piece on what she calls the everyday creator, defined as, “Individuals working 9-to-5 jobs while spending early mornings, evenings, and weekends as influencers on TikTok, personalities on YouTube, streamers on Twitch, writers on Substack, and podcasters broadcasting to your favorite audio feeds.” Sure, it’s not the glamorous path, but it’s a much steadier one, and it enables the artist to keep having fun and to focus on the art. If it flops? No problem, the job will pay for it.
A couple of years ago, I’d quit my job and wanted to become a full-time writer. It didn’t turn out as I’d hoped (“We can’t all be Nas”). In fact, I felt like it was a failure, and I was a failure. My dwindling savings were part…
